Pictures were from my table for friends who live here in Kars. We have good times together so we do repeat gethering once in a while whenever we are available. It has been while since I’ve got these pictures but I couldn’t find a chance to publish. I have some shots from my friend’s table as well. I ‘ll post them as soon as possible.There sure are new recipes from her table too.

I didn’t exaggerate this time in terms of courses I prepared. It was a quite reasonable number. let’s have look at them

First, we`ll start to prepare filling. Put shredded apples in a deep pan and saute with sugar for a while. When it gets soft, turn the heat off and let cool down. Add cinnamon and chopped walnuts. Stir to combine. Set that filling aside.

To prepare the dough, Put all the ingredients (but not flour and baking powder) in a large bowl. Sift the flour and baking powder together in another bowl. Gradually Add flour mixture to the butter mixture until it is a nice and soft cookie dough. Put the dough into the fridge for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces to make the rolling easy. Take one piece of them and roll it like circle. Cut with round cookie cutter or anything in circle shape. Get one round piece and put 1 tsp filling on the center and stick both edges till the end. So you’ll get D shape. Do the same thing to all pieces of dough. After finished all pieces, put them on to greased cookie sheet. Pop it in 350 degree preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or so.

Take them out of the oven. When they are completely cooled, sift powdered sugar on top.

If you are not a big fan of celery, let me tell you that this is a kind of salad that you can’t even guess there is celeriac inside. The other ingredients must change the taste and give a nice aroma. I liked very much and found it really light and healthy just like a salad should be. Severely suggested!

Ingredients

2 medium celeriac (celery roots)

1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked evenly and pulled finely

1/2 cup coarsley chopped walnut

3 tablespoonfull of plain yogurt

1 tablespoonfull of mayo

juice of 1 lemon

1 lemon to rub the celeriac

salt

Directions

Peel the celeriacs and rub them with half of a lemon in order not to get them darken. Grate them in a bowl and pour an additional lemon juice. Mix and set aside.

You see one of our tea gatherings with ladies in pictures. It is Nalan’s table setting. She is a talented Circassian woman. This would be the first Circassian recipe I added to my blog. Perhaps she’ll keep preparing from Circassian cuisine in every gatherings so I ‘ll share with you! Let’s move on what we had that day…

Our host herself was a Circassian, so she knows details about the salad made around Turkey. I asked her that the salad I know is a little different than she prepared that day. For instance, there is always a few slices of bread (ground in food prossesor) and minced garlic inside the salad.

The other difference was red oil (means oil and paprika mixture). Normally oil and paprika are heated and some is added inside the salad and rest is drizzled on the salad as garnish.

She says that they normally prepare a kind of tiny dough pieces like gnocchi in original recipe of Circassian chicken salad. They cook them by boiling then drain and add to the salad. Since she thought that everybody might not like it so she omitted the dough part and prepared the salad without dumplings. She thinks that adding bread crumbs might be for substitution for that dough part.

Drizzling red oil inside and on top of salad is a part of original recipe so you could prepare and add some oil/ paprika mixture to your salad.

you might have noticed that I can’t update the blog as often as it used to be. Of course starting a job is an excuse but as I told you before, writing a blog is a passion not a chore. The main reason is that I haven’t been cooking recently. I couldn’t because everything stinks to me. I’ve just started to feel okey for a few days. It is good news, we are expecting a baby! yes we’ll have 3 kids in summer insa Allah. We have 2 boys, can you guess the new one’s gender?

I know it sounds a little assertive title, but after you read through ingredients I am sure you’ll agree. Coleslaw was a salad I tasted in US. But somehow I’ve never prepared it until now. It consists white cabbage, napa cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, green onions, mayo or vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. It is that simple!!!. Some would even add onion, green pepper or parsley.

Our first broccoli salad consists of fresh red pepper(1), carrot (1), broccoli (1lbs), corn kernels 1/2 cup, garlic (2 cloves), salt, olive oil, lemon juice. Trim off the large leaves from the broccoli stem. Remove the tough stalk at the end and wash broccoli head thoroughly. Cut the head into florets and the stem into bite-size pieces. Place in a medium pot with hot boiling water. Add julienne cut carrot. Boil for 5-10 minutes and drain well. Place in a large bowl. Add julienne sliced red pepper. Stir corn in too. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, (lemon juice, olive oil, salt and minced garlic) stirring well. Add to broccoli mixture and toss gently. P.S: I used canned corn. But if you want to use raw, then you’ll need to cook it before adding to salad.

I found the recipe from one of the blogs I follow. I tried and really liked it. I never skip salad kind recipes I met. This was just one of them. Original recipe has mustard in sauce along with lemon juice, olive oil and salt. I omit mustard and add some fresh dill.

Ingredients

5 springs of green onion, thinly sliced

3/4 cup corn (canned)

1-2 tin canned tuna

a few springs fresh dill, chopped

2 fresh red pepper

or 3 roasted red peppers, diced

1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

1 lemon juice

3-4 tbsp olive oil

salt

Directions

in a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients but lemon juice salt and olive oil. in a jar squeeze lemon juice, add salt. Put the lid on and shake. Stir olive oil in and shake it again until well blended. Drizlle over the salad and toss to coat.

We liked the salad as a family. But as far as I observed, fresh mint and dill aren’t used that common in cuisine of US. So don’t be afraid that fresh dill and mint are going to give over powering aroma to your salad. Since we use just a little amount of them, they aren’t as over flavoring as we thought as first sight. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to prepare and it is yield for 2 as a whole generous portion.

Ingredients

2 medium tomatoes

2 medium cucumbers

2 green peppers

2 green onions

1 red bell pepper

A bunch of arugula

A handful of fresh mint

Handful fresh dill

A handful of fresh flat leaf parsley

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

Salt

Directions

Peel and chop all the vegetables. Combine in a medium mixing bowl. Add salt, olive oil and pomegranate molasses. Stir and toss to coat. Divide the salad plates and enjoy!